Oscar Niemeyer

Oscar Niemeyer Soares Filho (born December 15, 1907) is a Brazilian architect who is considered one of the most important names in international modern architecture. He was a pioneer in the exploration of the constructive possibilities of reinforced concrete.

1980s to the present

The dictatorship lasted 21 years. In the 1980s it softened and gradually turned into a democracy. At this time Niemeyer decided to return to his country. He himself defines this time as the beginning of the last phase of his life. During that decade he made the Memorial Juscelino Kubitschek (1980), the Pantheon (1985) and the Latin America Memorial (1987), the last a beautiful sculpture representing the wounded hand of Jesus, whose wound bleeds in the shape of Central and South America.

Related Topics:
Memorial Juscelino Kubitschek - 1980 - Pantheon - 1985 - Latin America Memorial - 1987 - Jesus - Central - South America

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In 1988 Oscar Niemeyer was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize, together with the American architect Gordon Bunshaft.

Related Topics:
1988 - Pritzker Architecture Prize - Gordon Bunshaft

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He designed at least two more buildings in Brasilia, small ones that are arguably among his greatest, the Memorial dos Povos Indigenas ("Memorial for the Indigenous People") and the Catedral Militar, Igreja de N.S. da Paz.

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In 1996, at 89 years old, he created what many consider his greatest work: the Niterói Contemporary Art Museum (in the city of Niterói, a city next to Rio de Janeiro). The building flies from a rock, giving a beautiful view of the Guanabara Bay and the city of Rio de Janeiro. Critics of the museum say the building is so exotic that it upstages the works of art inside it.

Related Topics:
1996 - Niterói Contemporary Art Museum - Guanabara Bay

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In 2003, Niemeyer was called to design the Serpentine Gallery Summer Pavilion in Hyde Park London, a gallery that each year invites a famous architect who has never previously built in the UK, to design this temporary structure.

Related Topics:
2003 - London

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On December 10, 2004, a tombstone of Communist Carlos Marighella, in Salvador, Bahia was inaugurated to celebrate the 35th anniversary of his death. The tombstone was designed by Niemeyer.

Related Topics:
December 10 - 2004 - Tombstone - Carlos Marighella - Salvador - Bahia

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Today, Niemeyer is over 97 and still discerning, active and brilliant. Niemeyer is still involved in diverse projects, mainly sculptures and readjustments of old works of his that, protected by national (and some cases international) historic heritage regulations, can only be modified by him.

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